Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Wednesday proposed a limited amnesty to help end the Sunni Arab insurgency as part of a national reconciliation plan that Maliki said would be released within days. The plan is likely to include pardons for those who had attacked only U.S. troops, a top adviser said.

One of my good friends has been in the U.S. Army reserves for about five years. He got called up to serve in the War on Terror two summers ago. They sent him back home because of a pre-conditioned heart problem. This summer they called him up again. They need him despite his health problems. I really hope I get to see him again - in person. I'm praying for you Ed.

The future is . . . molten, like lava. Attitudes formed now, decisions made now, could endure after the lava cools. But the coalition is not, as yet, on the ground in the Sunni belt in sufficient strength to influence that pattern.

Elites driven from power usually have much to fear. Fearful people need protection. If the invaders are seen as fundamentally hostile or worse yet, allied with a domestic enemy . . . well, the Reconstruction Era KKK wouldnt be the first terrorist organization to flourish under such circumstances.Or the last.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office on Thursday accepted the resignation of an aide who had told a reporter that Maliki was considering a limited amnesty that would likely include guerrillas who had attacked U.S. troops, the aide said.
...
The Maliki aide who resigned, Adnan Ali al-Kadhimi, stood by his account of amnesty considerations, reported Thursday by The Washington Post. Kadhimi said Maliki had indicated the same position less directly in public. "The prime minister himself has said that he is ready to give amnesty to the so-called resistance, provided they have not been involved in killing Iraqis," Kadhimi said Thursday.
...
Another Maliki aide, asked if the amnesty being considered by the government was likely to apply to those who had attacked U.S. forces, said Maliki had been "clear, saying those whose hands weren't stained with Iraqi blood" may be eligible for any amnesty.

British, Australian and Japanese troops will transfer security responsibilities in southern Iraq to Iraqi authorities next week, and withdraw from the area soon afterward, Kyodo News said Friday.

At a defense meeting of the three countries last week in London, British officials told their counterparts that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will announce the transfer of security authority in southern Iraq on Tuesday, the Japanese agency reported, citing coalition sources. The agency did not give the nationality of the sources.

London will then announce the pullout of its forces from the southern province of Muthanna, and Tokyo and Australia were to follow with similar announcements, Kyodo said.

.
Islam memo: (Saturday June 17, 2006, 1 in the afternoon) "The American occupiers have invaded and taken over one of the biggest mosques in Ramadi and installed American snipers on its minaret. This is the seventh mosque that has been taken over and put under the control of the occupation forces during the past six months."
.

Islam Memo: (Saturday June 17, 2006, 7:45 at night) "A retired Iraqi general has issued a warning to the Iraqi Resistance forces to beware of falling in a trap set up by the American occupiers to ensnare the Resistance fighters in Ramadi.
Major General Ahmad Al-Ubaidi, commander of the third brigade that participated in the liberation of the Fao peninsula from the Iranian occupiers in 1987, has warned against the depletion of the Resistance forces in the 'Sponge of Ramadi'. He explained: "The intention of the delayed American tactic is to draw in and absorb as many of the Resistance fighters that are now infiltrating into the city. The occupiers would then quickly withdraw and bomb the whole city from the air and might even use forbidden weapons which were previously used against the Resistance fighters and civilians in Fallujah in November 2004, to obliterate the Resistance forces that would be holed up in the city.
General Ubaidi pointed out to the Islam Memo correspondent that several former Iraqi military commanders, relying on their previous military experiences, have been preparing a detailed report to be sent shortly to the Resistance leaders in Ramadi explaining the possible scenarios that would result on the light of the prolonged tight siege of the city. They would be offering their military advice on how to manoeuvre in response to these alternatives".

Two thousand five hundred fresh graves in white rows…
but, “That’s just a number”, says Mr. Snow.
Two thousand five hundred, lives thrown away,
but, “That’s just a number”, we all heard him say.
Two thousand five hundred came home in a box,
but, “That’s just a number” said that bastard from Fox!
Two thousand five hundred names to write on long walls,
but, “That’s just a number”, as if that was all.

Two thousand five hundred, cut down in their prime
but, “That’s just a number” what a helluva line!
Two thousand five hundred times how many more,
but, “That’s just a number” sneers the media whore!
Two thousand five hundred and many more maimed,
their bodies & minds broken, driven insane…
Two thousand five hundred, questions burn in my mind,
brothers and sisters, are we deaf are we blind?

For two thousand five hundred fistfuls of red sand
can you tell me why monsters are running our land?
For WE are the people this land is our land,
and we’re not just numbers, like dollars to spend!
Brothers and sisters, please let us join hands,
with all of our numbers we can take back our land!
Brothers and sisters, please let us join hands,
with all of our numbers we can take back our land!

The occupation of Iraq by the US+uk, or the so -called ‘coalition forces’ (and that designation is the reason that the US scraped about for suppport - in law the entity has to be these ‘coalition forces’ including say Tuvalu even if they only sent one soldier in a wheelchair) as well.

The whole re-writing of Iraqi laws by ViceRoy the great 'Booted' Paul Bremer, also.

All that paper is thrash - some of it literally written on paper napkins.

The Iraq Constitution is not valid either.

In this situation - where, amongst others, the Geneva Conventions have been invalidated - there are no International procedures in place for a ‘peace treaty’ or an ‘international accord’ or ‘bilateral agreements’ or 'pardons' or 'prosecutions' or anything else.

All the parties know it.

So, for anything to be clear, to be properly negotiated, to be agreed in an enduring fashion would mean acknowledging that *all international law* (to use a brief encapsulated description) must be considered obsolete, and new rules have to be invented. That state of affairs a huge number of people will do anything to avoid... I might speak of their vain hopes...and be critical...but at the end of the day, fear and head-in-the-sand rule, and that is comprehensible. (It will be the death of the UN of course.)

Maliki is flying on the seat of his pants in a chaotic world in which there are no rules but brute personal power. Beyond that, puppet Gvmts. have a hard - even impossible - row to hoe. His vague (and utterly inappropriate) model or base seems to be South Africa. (? - more could be said...) His posturings and pronoucements are accepted because they provide rotten grist to a decrepit mill...

Laws are made to be broken, they say, and so they are.

The Int’l community (as I read it) gave the US a nod and a wink on Afghanistan, promising to iron out the wrinkles later. (This was before 9/11; and they have kept their promise.) Iraq was over the top and has destroyed the International System entirely.